In the command/status area, displaying "-- NORMAL --" after the user has pressed ":" or "/" to begin entering a command doesn't seem particularly useful (technically, that mode no longer applies at that point), and has a negative effect.  I'm used to having the ":" or "/" appear on the left, sometimes I press ":" or "/" several times before I notice/remember where they're showing up (more so in Visual Studio than ViEmuW). If the mode text were replaced, it would provide additional motion to attract my attention to the correct spot (which I apparently need since there's no flashing cursor in command/search).

I think I would find it more usable if "/" and ":" were implemented in a single line edit control embedded in a dockable toolbar (docked on bottom by default) similar to the search toolbar in Visual Studio that is (without ViEmu) accessible with Ctrl-D. (I've mentioned this before, but I hadn't tried ViEmuW at that time.)